Stockton Institute for Lifelong Learning

SCOSA's Stockton Institute for Lifelong Learning (SILL) brings the best of Stockton's faculty to the community via short-courses (generally four 1-hour sessions) related to their teaching, scholarship, service, and interests. Space is limited, tuition is reasonable (free to Atlantic County residents who are 60 and older), and we hope to continually expand this programming that let you learn from and interact with Stockton’s accomplished faculty. For further information please contact Gina.Maguire@stockton.edu or Assistant Director Christine.Ferri@stockton.eduor call 609-652-4311 and leave a message.

The tuition costs for all SILL courses is $45 for all four sessions (unless otherwise noted).

Free to residents 60 years old or older of Atlantic or Ocean Counties.

SILL Programs for Spring 2023:

The Contemporary American Novel
Professor Kristin Jacobson, Ph.D.
Fridays: March 3, 10, 24 and 31, 12:30-1:30 pm, Galloway Campus (Room F-224)
Register HERE

This course will outline the status of the contemporary American novel in the first session. Participants will select one to three recent American novels for the remaining three sessions, with a specific focus on contemporary American women writers as March is Women’s History Month. The remaining three sessions will focus on the novel(s) selected, with lectures focused on genre, historical and cultural context, and other writers who explore similar themes. There will be time in each session for discussion of the lecture and novel. Participants are encouraged to read the novel prior to the session or use the course for enrichment of future reading. Novel list (participants will pick 1-3 for sessions 2-4): The Vanishing Half (2020) by Brit Bennett, A Children’s Bible (2020) by Lydia Millet, A Woman is No Man (2019) by Etaf Rum, The Idiot (2017) by Elif Batuman, The Round House (2012) by Louise Erdrich, Salvage the Bones (2011) by Jesmyn Ward.

Kristin J. Jacobson is a professor of American Literature, American Studies, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Stockton University in New Jersey. She completed her Ph.D. at Penn State, her M.A. at the University of Colorado-Boulder, and her B.A. at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI. Her book Neodomestic American Fiction (2010, Ohio State University Press) examines contemporary domestic novels. Her recent book The American Adrenaline Narrative (2020, University of Georgia Press) identifies a new genre of travel and environmental literature. The project defines and then examines the genre’s significant tropes from an ecofeminist perspective. Her current research examines contemporary American climate fiction. Jacobson was a Fulbright-Greece scholar at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and a Fulbright Specialist at the International University of Kyrgyzstan.

American History: American Foreign Policy
Professor Richard O’Meara, Ph.D.
Wednesdays: April 5, 12, 19 and 26, 12:30-2:00 pm, Manahawkin Campus
Register HERE

Contrary to popular belief, U.S. foreign policy is not constructed by the party out of power as it waits to take over. Rather, how the United States operates on the world stage is the product of multiple influences including: traditional foreign policy culture, bureaucratic culture, domestic politics, and the perceived and actual national security interests of adversaries and competitors. This course examines these various threads and applies them to two case studies 1) the decision to leave Afghanistan and 2) the decision to support Ukraine.

Dr. Richard M. O’Meara is a Professor of history and international security studies who teaches at Stockton University and Rutgers University.

Baseball: The Early Days       
Fridays: April 7, 14, 21, and 28, 2023 2:30-3:30 pm 
Galloway Campus, Unified Science Center Room 160
Register HERE

This course, led by Dr. Deb Dagavarian, will look at three periods in early Major League Baseball history. We’ll start with its beginnings in the mid-19th century: from the 1840s in New York City to its proliferation during the Civil War and beyond, to the start of major league play. Next, we will examine the “dead ball” era from 1900 to 1920: from the early competition between the National and American leagues to baseball’s first superstars, and the scandal of the 1919 World Series. Finally, we will focus on the second World War period: from the depletion of the major leagues of its stars enlisting to the development of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. We will also discuss what is happening this year in baseball’s new season.

American History: Getting our minds around great events: World War I
Professor Richard O’Meara, Ph.D.
Wednesdays: May 10, 17, 24 and 31, 12:30-2:00 pm, Manahawkin Campus
Register HERE

WW1 is often thought of as the end of the long 100-year peace, which stretched from the end of the Napoleonic wars to 1914. During the period, Germany, Italy, Britain, France and Russia all became principal players in imperial competitions one with the other. Two new powers, the United States and Japan emerged as well. The gilded age was considered an age of immense progress. No one thought it could all be torn down by a 4-year war that would result in the wholesale destruction of five empires. The peace of Versailles which ended the war is considered so imperfect as to have set the stage for the next World War just 20 years later. The ramifications of WW1 are still with us in the configuration of western Europe, Ukraine, eastern Europe and the Middle East. This course examines these major issues and helps us reflect on contemporary global issues as well.

Dr. Richard M. O’Meara is a Professor of history and international security studies who teaches at Stockton University and Rutgers University.

Enhancing Spiritual Literacy Across 4 Themes: “Things”, “Nature”, “Our Body” & “Relationships”
Professor Lisa E. Cox, Ph.D, MSW, LCSW
Fridays, June 9, 16, 23, & 30, 2023
Online via Zoom
Register HERE

People enhance the quality of their lives when they pay attention to the preciousness of each moment of the day. In addition, we humans are moved by experiences that include revelations and occasions of powerful insights. Therefore, in this weekly series, participants will explore meaning in life issues and important insight related to the spiritual themes of “Things,” “Nature,” “Our Body” and “Relationships.” Through the sharing of inspirational literature and the processing of experiential weekly activities (including Micro Memoirs), we’ll discover how the spiritual practices of love, beauty, gratitude, imagination, and compassion all get a workout when we live consciously and think about the meaning of our “things,”, the beauty of “nature,” and the vast complexity of “our body and our relationships.”